[Nick Beale]

I've started looking at the files in the DEFE 3/ series which cover Italian naval signals and I'm turning up occasional references to German and Italian aircraft losses. Some examples are attached.

To find this series of signals, go to the UK National Archives site's advanced search option, put ZTPI in the "exact word or phrase" box and DEFE 3/ in the box "search for or within references". This returns 39 hits covering June 1941–September 1943 and each file contains around 1,000 messages.

The Bf 109 referred to in two of the attachments seems to be G-2/trop. W.Nr. 10483 of 4./JG 53, belly landed following engine trouble on "Insel Iekas" (actually Lefkada, Greece), pilot Ofw. Karl Marten.